Tag: God

On Sunday, Pope Francis wrapped up the synod, or bishops meeting, he presided over for the last two weeks with a beatification service at the Vatican for Pope Paul VI but without significant progress made on hot-button topics such as homosexuality, divorce and contraception.

If you want to piss off an atheist, tell him or her that atheism is a religion just like any other. Michael Nugent, chairman of Atheist Ireland, attempts to clear the record on what many of those who “willfully unbelieve” really believe about faith, certainty and morality.

The official Democratic Party Platform should have been approved easily during a vote, but it wasn’t. Instead, it became a moment of opportunity for the Republicans after a commotion erupted among Democrats on the convention floor over removal of the words “God” and “Jerusalem” from the platform.

Here’s something that won’t play well in the states that the Democrats most likely would have lost anyway in the upcoming presidential election: They have removed the word “God” from their platform. What’s more, they’ve also left out a clause from the party’s 2008 platform stating Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.

Michele Bachmann’s press secretary said the candidate was obviously speaking in jest when she attributed the recent earthquake and storm afflicting the East to an angry God. Well, as long as she was only joking about events that killed at least 35 people. ....

In his new book, the famed physicist dismisses the notion, sometimes peddled by scientists, that a deity was involved with the big bang: “Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing. ... It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going.”

Much like the biblical Job, the actor and official member of “the famous Baldwin brothers Hollywood clan” believes in God and has endured hardships. Now, although this particular Baldwin apparently hasn’t suffered from a plague of boils ... (continued)

Drawing God is an age-old challenge, but ultra-quirky illustrator R. Crumb was up for it—although it took a lot of white-out to do the job, which seems fitting somehow. Crumb tackled the first 50 chapters of the Old Testament in his latest creation, simply titled “The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb,” and lo, it is good.

Let’s get something straight, America. Charles Darwin was right. Only 39 percent of you believe that, but his theory of evolution is the basis of modern biological science. Deal with it. A new film about the man can’t get distribution in the U.S. because—this is embarrassing just to type—150 years after “On the Origin of Species,” he’s too controversial in these parts.

The Texas Board of Education is currently reviewing the state’s social studies curriculum to decide whether God should have a bigger place in history class. On the revision committee that’s shaping the debate there’s a reverend who preaches that Hurricane Katrina, Watergate and the Vietnam War—three events surely to be found in history textbooks—are signs of God’s judgments on America’s sexual immorality.

Can Robert Wright, the acclaimed author of “The Moral Animal,” square the circle in his new book on the persistent and vexing issue of what role religion plays in how human societies seek to comport themselves? Just how crucial to our modern ethical ideas like universal rights and equality among all persons is the notion of a single, all-powerful god?

The percentage of Americans who follow no religion has doubled since 1990, according to a new survey of religious identity. At 15 percent, they are now the third largest group, behind Catholics and Baptists. The Christian majority has dwindled by 10 points in the last 18 years.

The Paris Hilton of conservative politics is back and more preposterous than ever. Joe “the Plumber” Wurzelbacher is headed to the Middle East to report on the war in Gaza for Pajamas Media. But isn’t that dangerous? Not to worry, says Joe: “Being a Christian I’m pretty well protected by God, I believe.”

GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin said today that she was “delighted” with her performance in a much-publicized ABC News interview with Charlie Gibson and gave credit to her “trusty Magic 8-Ball” for helping her come up with answers to “some darn tricky questions,” according to this satirical report.

With all the subtlety of a jackhammer, an enterprising right-wing artiste by the name of Mike Meehan has recorded an election-year anthem, “Please Don’t Vote for a Democrat,” and has launched a corresponding PR campaign via the Internet and billboard ads—like this one in noted liberal stronghold Orange County, Florida—in hopes of striking fear and indignation into the hearts of undecided voters.

This’ll no doubt create some semantic confusion among religious leaders and congregations alike, but the U.K.-based Movement for Reform Judaism is issuing a new prayer book that eschews gender-specific references to the Supreme Being. It might be a hard sell, considering the results of a survey that the Jewish group conducted in anticipation of the unconventional release.

The pope’s chief astronomer has written an article in the Vatican newspaper that argues that intelligent beings “created by God could exist in outer space.” The article, “Aliens Are My Brother,” is likely a move by the Vatican to strengthen its scientific credentials, bringing science and religion closer while maintaining papal control over the entire universe.

The national media have made a pariah of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama’s former pastor, by replaying carefully selected snippets of his sermons without context. Here are extended versions of two of Wright’s more controversial statements.

Would God ever damn America? Is there anything we have done or could do as a nation that might court such severe judgment from an almighty, or is there a peculiar American exemption from God’s wrath? The prediction of God’s damnation for bad behavior is made in both black and white churches.

The former intelligence officer and weapons inspector argues that the president’s recent World War III comment offers some rare insight into the highly secretive world of George W. Bush’s White House, where the leader of the free world gets advice from reckless neoconservatives, “war criminal” Dick Cheney and “God.”